_Of the lande of Ethiope._
[Illustration]
ON the other side of Calde toward the south side is Ethyope a great
lande. In this lande on the south are the folke right blacke. In that
side is a well that in the daye the water is so colde that no man may
drinke thereof, & in the nighte it is so hote that no man may suffer
to put his hand in it. In this lande the rivers and all the waters are
troublous and some dele salte for the great hete, and men of y^t lande
are lightly dronken & haue little appetite to meate, and they haue
commonly the flixe of body and they live not long. In Ethiope[1] are
such men that have but one foote, and they go so fast y^t it is
a great marvaill, & that is a large fote that the shadow thereof
covereth y^e body from son or rayne when they lye uppon their backes,
and when their children be first borne they loke like russet, and when
they waxe olde then they be all blacke. In Ethiope is the lande of
Saba, of the which one of the three Kings that sought our Lorde at
Bethleem was King.
[Illustration]
[Footnote 1: Like many other marvellous stories related by
Sir John Mandeville, they were told by Pliny, in his Natural
History, nearly 1200 years previously. For instance, in Book
7, chap, li., devoted to Man, he quotes Ctesias as saying that
in India is another race of men, who are known as Monocoli,
who have only one leg, but are able to leap with surprising
agility. The same people are also called Sciapod[oe], because
they are in the habit of lying on their backs during the time
of extreme heat and protect themselves from the sun by the
shade of their feet. For other types of these "peculiar
people" see Appendix.]